Mountain of the Dead by Keith McCloskey Read Free Book Online Page B

theory, posits that everyone froze to death with some of them falling and badly injuring themselves (although Luda Dubinina missing her tongue is not so easily explained in this scenario).
    One theory put forward is that the group succumbed to the phenomenon known as ‘paradoxical undressing’ – the term used to describe people who are freezing to death and who start to remove the clothes that are keeping them warm, thereby hastening their deaths.It is assumed by some that paradoxical undressing had led to the deaths of many in the group. The supposition is that both George Krivonischenko and Yury Doroshenko were the first to die and that they both froze to death. They were both found by the search party in a state of undress and it could be taken that, in a delirious state, they both succumbed to the condition. However, this is not borne out by investigation. Some of the clothes they were wearing were found on the others (e.g. Luda Dubinina was wearing clothes belonging to Doroshenko and Krivonischenko) and had been removed after death, in some cases with the use of a knife. The bodies of Doroshenko and Krivonischenko were found side by side, which suggests that their bodies had been moved and placed in this position by the surviving members of the group – and showed respect for the two dead. What can be inferred from this – the removal of the clothes from the already dead members of the group – is that they had tried to keep as warm as possible with what they had.
    The issue of paradoxical undressing is worth examining in detail but, as will be shown, it is a wrong assumption and not only that, but it does not adequately explain the events that took place that night.
    Paradoxical undressingis a condition that is common in winter survival and is known in some Western mountaineering circles as ‘cold stupid’. Whilst the term itself and the issue of hypothermia are commonly associated with mountaineering, it can occur wherever the danger of hypothermia arises. As an example, paradoxical undressing was present in thirty-three cases of deaths by hypothermia that had been collated by Swedish police in a study in 1979. 1 The cases had an even distribution of age, sex and geographic location, although it was found that most occurred between November and February in areas of open land (though some occurred in towns). Significantly, arteriosclerosis and chronic alcoholism were important concomitant illnesses, with alcoholism being a factor in many middle-aged men. Ethanol and other drugs were present in 67 per cent of the men and 78 per cent of the women, with ethanol predominating in the males and various psychotropic agents (tranquillisers, sedatives and antidepressants) in the females. The mean blood concentration that was found in the males was 0.16 per cent and in females 0.18 per cent. The most frequent findings at autopsy were purple spots or discolouration on the extremities, pulmonary edema (fluid accumulation in the lungs) and gastric haemorrhages.
    Hypothermia occurs when the ambient temperature is below that of the body. If clothing also becomes wet, the cooling effect of evaporation also considerably increases the possibility of hypothermia occurring. It may seem totally illogical that a person suffering from hypothermia (i.e. freezing to death) would then start to remove their clothes and hasten their own deaths. There is, however, a physiological explanation for the strange behaviour.
    In conditions of extreme cold, the body attempts to protect itself by moving blood away from the extremities and into the centre of the body (the core of the body) in order to protect the vital organs. This is why hands and feet become noticeably colder first while this is happening. The way that the movement of blood away from the extremities is achieved is by vasoconstriction of the peripheral circulation. Basically, the body is attempting to insulate the inner core by losing less heat. Vasoconstriction is the vascular